Rose Bowl tours give fans a chance to relive history

For the first time, the Rose Bowl is offering public, guided tours of the stadium.

For the first time, the Rose Bowl is offering public, guided tours of the stadium. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Joe Piasecki

Rose Bowl officials are launching a series of public tours offering football fans and architecture buffs an up-close look at the venue’s past, present and future.

The 91-year-old stadium’s first public, guided tour program in decades, which debuted Saturday, will continue indefinitely, with tours occurring four times a day — Thursdays through Sundays — except on game days or during special events, Rose Bowl General Manager Darryl Dunn said.

For $17.50, visitors can hang out in locker rooms, play reporter in a post-game interview room and even bring a football to toss around on the field, said Amy Pratt, director of sales for the stadium marketing firm Legends.

Highlights include the tri-level seating pavilion and press box area recently completed as part of an ongoing $181-million renovation of the stadium, as well as an original 1922 locker room uncovered during construction.

The tiny cement-walled room on the stadium’s northeast side housed either the Notre Dame team lead by Knute Rockne or coach Glenn “Pop” Warner’s Stanford team during the 1925 Rose Bowl Game, Dunn said.

Unveiled to the media on Thursday, the room now contains various stadium artifacts located during renovations, including a strip of decades-old aluminum bench seats, an antique turnstile, Rose Bowl game memorabilia — even old bottles buried underneath the stadium during its construction.